Desperate people escaping conflict, persecution, and social upheaval are in flight across the globe. While the world stands witness to tragedies unfolding daily, the search for safe haven proves elusive. Going wherever they can find shelter from the storm, refugees have been converging on developing, often poor, societies, possessing limited capacity to take care of their own people, let alone the millions of uprooted newcomers. Meanwhile, a few exceptions notwithstanding, the developed world has largely closed its gates, with the United States — up until now the principal destination for refugee resettlement – increasingly intent on making access to American soil ever more difficult than before.

This conference – the second in a two day event – seeks to understand the causes and consequences of today’s Global Refugee Crisis, to explore the range of policy responses in both the developing and developed world, and to examine the challenges involved in resettling immigrants in both the United States and Europe.

This day will involve three sets of parallel panels, featuring presenters from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, based in universities in Canada, France, and Italy, as well as the United States. Papers will be available to registered conference participants on a password protected website. Panels will follow the “Brookings format”: first, discussants will synthesize the papers and deliver a critical comment; the session will then immediately segue to discussion, ending with responses from the authors. We anticipate that this format will make for rich and stimulating dialogue throughout the day. The conference program follows immediately below.